Photographing Cars

This may not help anyone’s photography much but I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a childhood fantasy by driving the car from the 80s TV show Knight Rider (yes, I really am that sad). Obviously I took my camera with me to get some shots and I thought I might share some ideas about photographing cars.

Knight On The Run. F/2.8. 1/200s. ISO 200.

I had a limited time in which to shoot as there were others waiting to drive the car, so I did my best to capture as much as I could. I have also included images of other cars that I have photographed in the past to illustrate this article. Anyway, seeing that light was aplenty I was able to keep my ISO at a minimum while I merely chose the angles from which to shoot.

Knight Angle. F/2.8. 1/3200. ISO 200

Bright sunlight can be a harsh light to shoot in so I chose angles that filled the frame with the car or that placed the car against the sky. In those shots I dialled down my exposure compensation from between 0.3 to 0.7 and also exposed for the sky. As good as the dynamic range of my Olympus is, this ensured that I retained plenty of sky detail while enabling me to brighten the car (if I wanted to) in post. In some cases I liked the having the outline of the car in shadow. I also wanted to use the sun to capture its rays over the car. For this shot below I got myself into a low position around the vehicle and manually dialled an aperture of around F/14. I have found that a narrow aperture really helps to bring out the suns rays across whatever I happen to be shooting. And, no, I personally don’t mind the flare.

Rays Of Knight. F/14. 1/25s. ISO 200.

Having a bright and cloudy sky with high contrasts and hard light naturally invites a black and white rendition, and I took a few shots knowing that they could be treated to B+W in post. This really brought out the contrast between the black of the car and the whites of the clouds. In my humble view, if the clouds were not present, I don’t think that the images would have been as balanced.

I suppose it depends on the car but I find that low angles always make an already impressive car even more so, giving it an imposing and dominating look. Many people would advocate using an ultra-wide angle lens to accentuate this effect but I find that the resulting distortion is not to my taste. I think I’m weaning myself off ultra-wide lenses, but that’s an article for another time. Most of these shots were taken with the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 (24-80mm FF equivalent) which was wide enough for me.

Low Jag. F/2.8. 1/60. ISO 640.Knight Under. F/2.8. 1/3200s. ISO 200.

Lighting is the major factor in how your car shots are rendered, I think, and you can either use natural or artificial light. Artificial lighting can be creatively used to evoke a sultry or mysterious mood, or to highlight certain lines and angles on the car. Professional photographers will often use light in this way to shoot cars within a studio.

Expression. F/1.8. 1/50s. ISO 450.Headlight. F/1.8. 1/50s. ISO 400.

Alternatively, you may use the available light outdoors to your advantage. In the shot below, for example, I crouched low to exploit a fabulous sunset on the Isle Of Man over my friend’s car. I took several shots at various settings, but decided to create this HDR composite. My friend kindly took some direction from me, e.g. to turn the front wheel – this gave the car a less static appearance. The image is perhaps a little garish but Saab liked it enough to publish it in their monthly magazine.

Sunset SAAB. HDR Composite.

Cars are always laden with great lines and geometry, so make use of them by filling the frame with the car’s shape and angles.

Wheel. F/1.8. 1/60s. ISO 800.Emergence. F/1.8. 1/60s. ISO 800.

Lastly, there’s no rule that says you must photograph the car in its entirety so feel free to focus on individual details like wheel hubs or insignias, or even the interiors. Reflections in the bodywork can give a more abstract or interesting image.

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About Alpha Whiskey

Alpha Whiskey has pursued his enjoyment of photography both at home in the UK and overseas, capturing scenic views from Alaska to Bulgaria, from Iceland to California. He has pointed his camera and trained his eye at almost every subject, from wildlife to architecture, from portraits to landscapes, from the Red Bull X-Fighters to the Northern Lights. His photographs have been published on the covers of national publications and within media for the National Trust. His blog is a growing library of images from his travels, excursions, and his photowalks with friends, and he hopes that by sharing them he can encourage others to worry less about gear and simply go out and shoot.

Reader Interactions

Comments

1) Daniel Michael

September 15, 2015 at 3:38 am

Fun article, Sharif! I even like your Hoff impression in the last shot!

You are right, though, clouds do make more outdoor car shots more interesting, while for indoor, if the artificial lighting is too much a polarising filter helps!

Great article just about photography, ideas, and possible settings. Nice photo’s and for me two really stood out. Indoor Knight had that irresistible tonal change across the different windows, creating great eye lines and balance. I also really enjoyed Rays of Knight even though I think technically the flare is too harsh – I like it. The flare and shadows provided balance and for reasons I can’t quite explain, made you look at the whole picture despite the darkness of the car. It is the kind of picture I would be toying with for too long in post trying to get different looks! Anyway, thanks

Great car shots, Nice lighting, I love cars also. If you would like to shot some really old/neat car shots go to Cuba, they Love their cars. We went last year and there are soo many old cars. I took a lot of pics, had to document the amazing amount of old cars still running every day.www.mwsauer.com/Cuba%20Cars.html

Thanks for sharing these! The old cars bring back good memories and you are sure right about how well a lot of them are kept up. I would like to take a trip to Cuba someday. Everyone who goes raves about how beautiful it is.

The car does look a bit of a wreck. Check out the bonnet and panel fits, the shut lines, the lamp alignment, the weedy exhaust and the ride height! And is that a DeLorean I see in the background? Another ten ton Tessy jokemobile. And people actually queued up to drive these things?

Comment Policy: Although our team at Photography Life encourages all readers to actively participate in discussions, we reserve the right to delete / modify any content that does not comply with our Code of Conduct, or do not meet the high editorial standards of the published material.

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